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Fargo Free Church
The Fargo Free Church *'Description: '''A loose organization of independent Christian Churches (usually non-denominational or Pentecostal) operating in the Fargo area. *'Locations: 'There are many Free Churches scattered throughout the Fargo area, including the Church of the Burning Heart at 4324 20th Ave South Ste B, Fargo , RRDMZ 58103, the Second Coming Millennium Church at 4324 20th Ave South Ste B, Fargo , RRDMZ 58103, the Free Nepali Church at 1501 10th Ave S, Fargo , RRDMZ 58103, the River of New Life Church at 2402 7th Ave N, Fargo , RRDMZ 58102 and others. *'Views and Beliefs: '''The Free Church doesn't have anything like a unified doctrine, in fact most of these infamously independent churches are defined by not wanting to be bound by others' doctrines. What they do have is a set of commonalities, something like a series of overlapping venn diagrams. Things that the free churches tend to agree on is that they are all Christian, in that they are monotheists who believe in a deity who fulfills the classic three 'omnis' (omnipotent, omniscient, omni-benevolent) and that the Son of that God (Jesus) was killed and resurrected to enable human salvation (although the particulars of this and its ramifications are hotly debated between the Churches). The members of the Free Church tend towards the Pentecostal end of the spectrum, meaning that they favor a more personal, mystical relationship with the Divine, focusing on mystic revelation and the 'Gifts of the Spirit'. Most, but not all, of the Churches view magic as it is practiced in the Sixth World as sinful and arrogant at best and satanic witchcraft at the worst, although most of these churches preach about performing Miracles and 'Gifts of the Spirit', which modern Thaumatologists classify as a distinct tradition of magic, a judgement that the Free Churches tend to find blasphemous. The things they disagree on is a much longer list, with a wide variety of views (often within the same Church) on social questions, conflicts between those who want to renounce all things 'of the World ' and those who believe they were meant to prosper in it, views on metahumanity that range from lauding metavarients as God's Messengers, accepting them as (meta)human or casting them out as soulless abominations, disagreement over whether Matrix use and datajacks are the 'Sign of the Beast' and a startling array of opinions about what stage of the Biblical Apocalypse described in the Book of Revelations the world is in (although a majority of Free Churchers believe that the world is in some stage or another of it). For all these differances, their resistance to hierarchy, stubborn independence, militant, public piety and their fiery opposition to 'pagan idol worship' (non-Christian faiths such as the Seven Sacred Rites of the Lakotah or the Midewiwin of the Anishinaabe) seem to be enough to bind them together against a secular and Godless world for now. Interestingly, for all their 'Crusades' against the 'heathen', there is quite a bit of cross-over between the Free Church membership and the practices of Rivering , which is considered heathen or supersitious by the other, more established , Christian churches in the area. Return to: Religion Category:Culture Category:Religion Category:Magic